Gini Wijnaldum believes Liverpool fans are watching a new Daniel Sturridge and has backed the Reds striker for an England recall, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Sturridge scored an incredible late equalising goal for the Reds against Chelsea on Saturday, a goal that was his third in his last three appearances for the club.
The 29-year-old England international already has four goals to his name this season, more than he scored the entirety of the last campaign.
Speaking ahead of the side’s Champions League clash against Napoli on Wednesday evening, team-mate Wijnaldum praised Sturridge and explained how he has stepped up his game from last season.
I don’t know what he did in his pre-season but when he came back he was really fit
When I came back – because I came back a few days later than the other guys – he had done quite well, better than the years before.
During the season he has showed that he is really important for us, not only because of his goals but also the way he is playing.
Against Paris Saint-Germain we saw Sturridge playing in a way we didn’t see before, defending positions with one of the front three and did their job.
He is in really, really good shape, fit and in form. He deserves to be in the England squad.
On Wednesday Wijnaldum will come up against former team-mate Dries Mertens with whom he played with for two years at PSV Eindhoven between 2011 and 2013.
Wijnaldum has been impressed with how the Napoli star has gone from playing as a left winger to a centre-forward.
When I played with Dries he already showed he is a good player. I was lucky at PSV that I could play with him. I could see his development as a player.
There he was a left winger and scored a lot of important goals for the team. I’ve already known he could score goals as a left winger but didn’t know he could score goals as a striker.
When he changed to a striker he did the same as the best players in the world, he scored a lot of goals. He is a world-class player and has shown that with his development and like every good player, he can always make it difficult for an opponent.
